Getting your Masters

I passed the Child Life certification exam in March 2018 and began grad school in August 2018. One question that I often get is why get my masters when I’m already certified and working as a Child Life Specialist?

The main reason I went back to school is that I’m a strong supporter of continuing education. So although I’ve reached the goal of working as a Certified Child Life Specialist, I don’t think that I’m done learning. In fact, I’m nowhere near done learning! A masters program seemed like the natural step, especially considering that my undergrad was in Psychology versus Child Life. I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on and learning more about the field of Child Life, such as completing the University of California Santa Barbara’s Child Life Certificate and attending many regional and national conferences. But getting my Masters in Child Development with a concentration in Child Life offers me a stronger foundation in a blend of child development and pediatric support in the healthcare setting.

I also was excited to start my program while I am working in the field because I think that it gives me a unique perspective. When I was a student and learned about child development or child life theory and practice, it was theoretical. I could imagine how it would be used or read research about how preparation and medical play supports a patient’s coping. Now that I am working in the field, I see these thing every day. When I learn something new about child development, I can recognize that in my patients at work the following day. When we discuss medical play or developmentally appropriate preparation, I have a variety of examples to call upon where a patient coped well or didn’t cope at all with the stressful situation. I have seen times when distraction works perfectly and supports a patient’s coping, and I have also seen times when the patient refused to cope and no amount of distraction was successful.

If you are debating whether to return to school or not, I highly recommend it! Learning more about the child development and the field can only help you grow as an individual and as a professional.

The Association of Child Life Processionals offers a listing of Child Life Academic Programs to help you get started.

“Just” Playing!

Last summer I visited Lurie Children’s Hospital and had the opportunity to meet with members of their Child Life Staff. One of the people I met was the Director of Children’s Services. When she asked about my volunteering experience, I mentioned that I was completing my practicum and learning a lot about Child Life and working with kids in the hospital setting. I also shared that I was volunteering in a clinic’s waiting room. My responsibilities there included “just playing with the kids.” She immediately called me out on using the word just and encouraged me to not say “just” playing or “just” doing anything else. Because every experience is important.

In the past year, I have reflected on this advice many times. She was so firm against using the word “just.” And she was right, “just” minimizes things. It trivializes experiences. “Just” diminishes the importance of our work. You’re not “just” listening to someone, you are listening to that person. Being in the moment is so crucial, you listening to them could make a world of difference to that person who needs you. You don’t “just” volunteer, you volunteer. And that volunteering is something you should be proud of, it’s important.

I had an experience while volunteering at a Child Advocacy Center that reaffirmed for me the importance of play. One day while I was volunteering, a little boy came into the waiting room with one of his parents. The waiting room of the advocacy center was empty that day and so I spent my time playing with this little boy. We played Jenga, Sorry and other games while he and his parent waited to meet with members of the interdisciplinary staff. I didn’t think that our interaction was unusual. I played with kids in the waiting room all the time and this patient was no different. The way I saw it, I wasn’t providing any sort of specialized support. I was not prepping him for procedures or helping him cope with stress. I played with him to occupy his and my time while we were both in the waiting room.

When his parent was ready to go, the little boy asked that he stay longer so he could keep playing. His parent allowed him to stay a little longer before they needed to leave. As the little boy left, he told me that I was his best friend. We must have very different ideas of what a best friend is because I think of a best friend as someone who has been there for you for years and makes you laugh and have fun. But to that little boy, my playing with him meant I was his friend. I communicated with him through play. By “just” playing, I told him he was safe and loved. By allowing him to “just” choose the games he wanted to play with, I was able to give him back a sense of control. I was not “just” playing, I was playing.

“If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings and grow.”

– Alfie Kohn

A Letter to My Volunteer Supervisors

Last week I turned in my volunteer badge and finished another volunteer position. After nine months of playing with the hospitalized children and cuddling babies, leaving was bittersweet. While I’m excited to start my internship next fall, I am going to miss being an inpatient volunteer.

Organizations are often so thankful for their volunteers. They say that they couldn’t do what they do without their volunteers. Their volunteers are the most important part of their group. Speaking as a volunteer, I want to thank the groups that have allowed me to volunteer for them.

If I could, I would just volunteer for the rest of my life and not get a paying job. Because I was not left a multi-million dollar trust fund, I am going to have to get a job eventually. But I don’t think that I will ever stop volunteering, because it’s honestly the best job I’ve ever had. Knowing that I am playing a part in making a difference in someone else’s life is one of the best feelings in the world.

There are numerous health benefits associated with volunteering. The Corporation for National and Community Service published a review of recent research about these health benefits. You can read all 20 pages here. In short, volunteers have better physical and mental health. In the introduction to this research, volunteers are reported to have “lower mortality rates.” So thank you to my volunteer supervisor for keeping me alive!

One of the joys of volunteering is being able to do tasks that employees don’t have time for. In the past, this has meant cleaning toys, labeling them, running errands or delivering messages. Why do I enjoy this? Someone has to do these tasks and although they aren’t the most glamorous part of the volunteer position, they are necessary. By cleaning the toys, it means the child life specialists have more time to dedicate to their patients. By running errands around the ER, staff can focus on caring for their patients.

There is minimal pressure or stress as a volunteer. It’s just a time to be present. You can be present to the survivor of trauma that you are supporting, you can play with your campers at summer camp, or you can cuddle babies who are alone and each of those are your only task. As a volunteer, you don’t have a long To Do list waiting for you to finish. Your job is to be present for those who need you, to listen and support. Your role is to take each task as the most important task and focus all your time and energy on that one person that needs you.

Going to a volunteer job is an opportunity to take a break from the crazy and hectic lives that we all live. I think that almost everyone is always being pulled a million different directions. When you show up as your volunteer appointment, you can put away and phone and stop worrying about everything you need to do when you return home. You can relax and spend time with others who need you. It’s a chance to love people for who they are and sit with them in their pain and their joy.

I want to finish by saying thank you to all my past volunteer supervisors and those that I will work with in the future. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to grow as a person! Thank you for giving me a chance to love and serve others! Thank you for letting me help you care for those in need! Thank you for inspiring me by the work you do! Thank you for opening the doors to new opportunities! I don’t think that either of us will know the full impact that my volunteer position with you had on my life, but I do know that I have grown as a person since volunteering with you. And I firmly believe that every life experience affects us, so thank you for having such a positive influence on my future. 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

– Maya Angelou

PSIA Certification: Level One Instructor

Over Christmas Break this winter, I finally got my level one certification as a ski instructor. I’ve been teaching 3-6 year olds how to ski for the past 6 years, but never wanted to take the test. Well at the beginning of this year, I traveled to New Hampshire to take the test and I am so glad that I did.

Let me backtrack for a moment and explain what PSIA means and what the exam looks like. PSIA stands for Professional Ski Instructors of America. They are a nationwide organization that certifies snow-sports instructors. The exam consists of one day of training, an on hill skiing skill test, a teaching demonstration and then a paper exam that covers basic knowledge of ski instructing and an understanding of the mountain. The whole process takes two days and in the end you receive a certificate and your PSIA pin. If you work at a ski resort, you know exactly how cool it is to have a PSIA pin!

So why did I wait so long to take the test? I had a couple reasons for not taking the test. I have been teaching skiing since I was 16. As a high school student, teaching skiing was a job that combined my two loves (working with children and skiing). I wasn’t consumed with planning out my future and I was only in high school, it didn’t even cross my mind to take a national certification exam. Once I got into college, I was only home for a couple weeks over Christmas time so teaching at the mountain was a temporary job. My mountain offers PSIA exams, but not during Christmas time. So there also was a lack of convenience that stood in my way.

Why now? Why did I decide to finally take the test? The easy answer is that my supervisor encouraged me to. If I want to move up as an instructor at my mountain, I need my level one certification. There is also a pay increase, so that was obviously a motivating factor. But the real reason is that I am older. I know what I want to do and I want to take advantage of every opportunity to improve myself and be better prepared for the career ahead of me.

The level one training was idea sharing (meeting the other instructors and hearing how they teach the same skill to their student in different ways gave me new ideas to try when I returned to my home mountain), it was educational (the trainers had all taught skiing for a long time, so they were an abundance of knowledge about teaching different kinds of students and different ways to teach the same thing based on the student) and it was self-affirming. I like to teach skiing and I think that I’m not too bad at working with the 3-6 year olds. I was really encouraging to share my ideas with others and hear that they loved how I taught that skill or the way I phrased that direction for my students.

How does this relate to Child Life? Teaching skiing has given me a lot of experience working with children. Our lesson program is set up so we have the children for the whole day. Not only do I teach skiing, I also feed the kids, calm their fears and gradually accustom them to the discomfort of ski boots and the new sport of sliding down the hill on two sticks. With each lesson, I start by talking to the kids about the ski boots. We play games that they know (duck duck goose, red light green light, etc) in unfamiliar boots and unfamiliar terrain (the snow). Then we learn about the ski and start with just one ski. Once they are comfortable with that, we add the second ski and start going down the bunny slope. In the hospital, child life prep is that gradual familiarization between the patient and the medical equipment they will encounter. Instead of the nurse entering the room and suddenly jabbing an IV into the child’s arm, the Child Life Specialist explains to the child that an IV is a little straw that gives medicine to your body and the child plays with the IV before one is inserted into their arm. Sometimes they even place an IV on a doll before the nurse comes in to place one on the child. The IV is now something that they are familiar with and hopefully more comfortable around. That’s the goal of starting the kids with boot games and one ski, so they will be familiar with skiing before they have two skis strapped to their feet.

Child Life is all about meeting the child where they are at and guiding them through something unfamiliar. Teaching skiing requires the instructor to assess the child and develop a lesson plan based on their experience with the goal of teaching them something new, something unfamiliar.

My Experience as a Patient

I want to start this post by saying that I am okay! I realize that my entire head is bandaged, but I actually just had a small cut on the back of my scalp. The bandage goes around my entire head so that the gauze on my wound would stay there without someone holding it. I went ice skating with friends this past weekend and took a little spill about ten minutes into the afternoon. My feet went out from under me, my butt hit the ice and then my head. My first thought was, naturally, “darn, that’s embarrassing!” I wanted to get back up brush it off, but I quickly realized that was not possible. Although I did not pass out or become dizzy, I was very light headed. My friends dragged me over to the side of the rink, but I was able to walk off the ice and later walk to the car and into the hospital. So that definitely felt like an accomplishment! A nurse and a surgeon’s PA both came over after my fall and were very helpful in stopping the bleeding and taking care of me before the medics got there. While I was sitting on the ice withe everyone taking such good care of me, I quickly realized that you can’t turn off the child life specialist within you. I might not be certified yet, but I believe that I think and act like a child life specialist. I noticed that there were some kids in the group standing very close and trying to see. In my head, I wished that someone would engage them in interactive play away from here so they wouldn’t see all the blood. Since I couldn’t easily convey that to those around me, I tried to use an enthusiastic voice and suggest that they go ice skating some more. I might have been bleeding from my head, but I sure wasn’t going to let those children see the blood and get scared.

After the medics at the ice rink wrapped my head, our next stop was the emergency room. Now one of my strengths is communication and I talk A LOT when I’m nervous or when my adrenaline is rushing. I’ll let you imagine what the car ride was like…. One of the things that I later realized I did was prepared the others in the car for what might happen when we got there. But I think that I was actually trying to calm myself by walking everyone through the procedure. One of my practicum supervisors from this summer was an ER Child Life Specialist, so we spent a lot of time working with kids with lacerations. I knew the steps; numbing medication (probably EMLA cream since it was an open wound and a J-tip wouldn’t be practical), irrigation (the big syringe that washed your wound) and then the sutures. My friends must have thought I was crazy as I told them what each step would be and the associated sensations. Lucky for me, they are great friends and just listened as I blabbered on!

After the drive to the hospital came the fun part of waiting. The registration and triage went very quickly, but then we were sent back to the waiting room for what would be a four hour wait. As I mentioned earlier, I can’t turn off the child life specialist in me so I had Play-Doh in my purse that was nice to squeeze while waiting. As we were waiting, I tried to look around and imagine how it might look to an injured child. The hospital we went to was next door to a large Children’s Hospital, so this emergency department didn’t have anything for children as kids would be brought next door. But regardless of whether the hospital is a children’s hospital or not, there is always a wait time. And this wait time is a time of the unknown, a time to imagine what might be going on behind closed doors in the ER and also about how the doctor might decide to treat the wound.

After those four hours, I was admitted to an ER room and the doctor came in shortly after. He looked at the wound on the back of my head and then left to talk to his supervisor before they both returned to start fixing my head. While they were gone, the nurse brought in the supplies that they would be using. I had been wrong about how the doctor would take care of my head wound, and they actually used a numbing agent that is injected into the skin and they stapled my wound instead of doing stitches. But when the nurse brought in the supplies, I was able to identify them. I knew what the sterile water was for (irrigation), I recognized the irrigation kit and the large syringe, I knew that the small vial of medication was the numbing agent that would be injected and I could easily figure out which device was the stapler. But what if I hadn’t spent my summer in the hospital? What if I was a scared child who just saw a nurse bring in the supplies? As I named the items, I realized how important it is to properly prepare kids before procedures. Before my accident, I did know that preparation was important. But the experience of being the patient let me realize it’s importance from another point of view, the point of view of the child instead of the student who has studied stress, trauma and child development.

In the end, I only needed two staples for the one centimeter cut on the back of my head. While I’m glad I didn’t have a concussion and that it’s wasn’t more serious, a larger wound might have made a more dramatic story! But I can’t complain about how things worked out. 🙂 I’ve never been seriously hurt before this (and I realize that this injury wasn’t very serious either) but it did allow me to experience the hospital in a way that many children do each day. It allowed me an opportunity to grow in empathy towards those who are in the hospital, to those children that I hope to one day serve as a Certified Child Life Specialist.

SHARP Professional Forum

Guess what I did last week? Went to the SHARP Professional Forum! What’s the SHARP Professional Forum? Well let me tell you…..

SHARP stands for Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention and it is a part of the US Army. The SHARP Academy is located at Fort Leavenworth and they host multiple professional forums each year. I attended their forum last fall and heard a fabulous presentation by Dr. Hopper about Sexual Assault and the Brain. For the forum this spring, they wanted a sharing of ideas from local universities about their response and prevention practices. Naturally I wanted to present about my school, Benedictine College. Because the advisor for our Sexual Assault Awareness group is so supportive, we presented!

Our presentation was an overview of the services that our group (Ravens C.A.R.E) offers to students on our campus. The main points that we focused on were our bystander intervention trainings, our peer support program and also our educational campaigns. The part I spoke about was our educational campaigns. Each year in April we hold Stand with Survivors week. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and we chose to use one week to focus on survivors of all trauma, even if it’s not sexual assault. We also do a presentation each spring called “Helping Survivors Heal” and this focuses on how to be a supportive friend to a survivor. We talk about sexual assault and also the practical aspects of what to say and was not to say. And finally, we organize a variety of self defense classes throughout the year.

So how does this relate to Child Life? As the goal of this blog is about my journey to become a Child Life Specialist, I do want to explain how this relates. I have a passion for working with Survivors of Sexual Assault. When working with survivors, it’s important to be empathetic. You must reflect and validate their feelings. The same can be applied to the world of Child Life. When a child is hurting, it’s important for us to think about their experience. In order to empathize with them, we need to begin to understand how they feel. What is overwhelming them? How are they understanding the doctor and the big words s/he is using?  Working with college students who have survived trauma and can verbalize their experience makes it easier to imagine what a child goes through when they experience trauma.

It also relates to Child Life because there are many times in the hospital when a Child Life Specialist has to advocate for a child or present to other members about the role of Child Life. So practicing public speaking is a great idea to prepare for times when you will, as a Child Life Specialist, need to advocate for a child or family.

 

Responding to the Call: Children’s Disaster Services

I am super excited to share with you that this past weekend, I completed my training to become a Child Disaster Services (CDS) volunteer. What does this mean? When the Red Cross responds to a disaster, they typically set up a shelter. When Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) responds, they set up a day care in the shelter to help the children begin the healing process after the trauma of the disaster.

So what does this day care look like? I don’t want to spoil the awesome training for you, but I will say that it is a typical set up. There is an arts and crafts section, a quiet section with books and stuffed toys, a dramatic play area to allow for role play, and cars/trucks/other toys. One crucial difference is that the items are specifically selected to help the children express themselves and hopefully to begin the healing process. In the pile of cars/trucks, there are emergency vehicles similar to the ones that the children might have seen. There is paint so that the children can express what they have seen if they want to. The selected books often have meaning behind their cute titles and adorable characters. If possible, CDS volunteers try to set up water play or rice for sensory play.

Why is this important for children after trauma? Play is the language of children! It’s how they process the world around them and how they communicate to others about their experiences. After a disaster, parents have a lot to think about. They often have to figure out where the family will live, find a way to replace what was lost, fill out paperwork for a variety of organizations that will help….if they fill out the correct form in the right way. Children’s Disaster Services provides the parents with some time to take care of themselves and they provide the children with a safe place to begin to express themselves.

Check out their site to learn more and find a training near you: http://www.brethren.org/cds/

Reflections on my time at the Child Advocacy Center

Last week I finished my volunteering at the Milwaukee Child Advocacy Center. It was such an amazing experience!

My volunteer role was in the waiting room. When there were patients, I engaged in developmentally appropriate play with them. When there weren’t any patients, I cleaned toys. Although there was a Child Life Specialist at the Advocacy Center where I volunteered, most of my time was spent playing with the patients in the waiting room. Besides being a really fun volunteer job, it was also great practice in building rapport. In order to really help patients, Child Life Specialists have to be able to build rapport with the child. In settings like the Emergency Department or clinics, that rapport needs to be developed quickly since you typically don’t have time to get to know the patient in a playroom session.

Play in the waiting room was also very important for normalization, especially so for this population. For those of you that don’t know, a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) is a place for abused and traumatized children. The CAC in Milwaukee offers medical exams, forensic interviews, advocates, social workers and psychologists. If kids are in the waiting room, it typically meant that there was alleged abuse. So play took on the essential role of normalization. It also helped them feel safe in the new place where they would soon be asked many questions and examined by the doctor.

“The body heals with play, the mind heals with laughter and the soul heals with joy.”

– Proverb

My Child Life Journey

The summer after my first year of college, I visited with some extended family members. Since I love children, I was naturally drawn to playing with the little kids instead of socializing with the adults. While I playing with the little girls, my cousin suggested that I look into the field of Child Life. She started talking about how amazing the Child Life Specialist had been for her daughter when she was in a children’s hospital with a brain tumor. I was so impressed by the influential role that the Child Life Specialist played in my cousin and her daughter’s experience, I was immediately intrigued and began research Child Life. I was so impressed by the role of Child Life in hospitals that I knew this is exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Click here to learn more about my cousin and her daughter.

I loved my school, so I knew that I didn’t want to transfer out. I had already declared as a History Major and I had developed some great friendships. So after a little research, I decided to add a major in Psychology. When creating my class schedule each semester, I have been choosing classes that relate to development and children. I am also reading books related to children in hospitals and helping traumatized children heal and recover. I frequently participate in webinars to learn more about the hospital settings and new ways to help children.

This summer, I am taking my class taught by a CCLS and I am also completing my Child Life Practicum. I do not have very much Child Life Specific experience, so after my practicum I will be volunteering at a variety of summer camps. I will be working at a summer camp for kids with Sickle Cell Disease, another one for kids with cancer and then a third camp for siblings of kids with life threatening illnesses. I am also volunteering at two grief camps.

My long term plan is to complete my internship after graduation as an unaffiliated candidate. After my internship, I plan to apply for a Child Life Fellowship. I have only been able to find 5 Child Life Fellowship Programs in the United States, so it’s going to be very competitive but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Stay tuned as I continue my journey towards becoming a Certified Child Life Specialist.